CRN Impact Awards: Kirra Services, Industry Trading team up for Dell hardware rollout for the Federal Government

Managed services provider Kirra Services has taken home the 2021 CRN Impact Award for the Working Together category, in recognition of its recent collaboration with Sydney-based Industry Trading for an IT hardware rollout for the Federal Government.

Canberra-headquartered Kirra secured a contract with an undisclosed Federal Government agency worth $13.9 million to roll out some 4,894 Dell laptops, 4,769 monitors, 5096 docks and close to 20,000 associated accessories.

The contract required a consistent delivery model as the rollout covered 28 locations across Australia, and flexibility to balance with an agency’s internal IT team.

Kirra also sought to partner with another provider to deliver the hardware in time, citing challenges related to the COVID-19 restrictions and the global chipset shortages. The project also required the ability to store equipment locally within Canberra, deploy on-site in varying times to align with each site’s COVID approach, and remove old hardware from sites quickly and with minimal contact.

Industry Trading, an IT asset disposition firm, was chosen by Kirra for its existing working relationship, as well as offerings that include white-labelled deployment, sanitisation and asset buy back services, handling some 250,000 IT assets each year.

Dell was also involved in the imaging, assetting and logistics processes, as well as the financing to fund the project. Dicker Data also provided support for presales, sales, project management, configuration and third party logistics services.

The two companies worked with the departmental teams remotely to manage sites instead of having team leads travelling between sites.

Kirra also engaged with Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) to provide an Indigenous Digital Literacy Program with the aim of upskilling Indigenous students to prepare them for IT roles. With Industry Trading, the company also donated 15 laptops for the program to support some 12 to 20 students.

“It’s been a privilege to partner once again with Kirra Services in delivering another successful customer result. I have always enjoyed the transparent, positive and collaborative manner in which the Kirra team operates and the Government project was certainly a sterling highlight of this,” Industry Trading head of professional services Scott Tasker said.

“Flawlessly delivering the largest channel deal with Dell during a pandemic and global parts shortage, with almost no impact noticed by the customer is an exceptional result I’m proud our team can be part of. Knowing every project also contributes to supporting Kirra Services’ fantastic community programs helps provide the added incentive to go above and beyond.”

Speaking on the collaboration, Dell ANZ channel chief Shant Soghomonian said, “This project is one of the most successful collaborations we have done both in terms of business numbers and the impact it had on the community. We were happy to play our part through financing support as well as physical rollout.”

“Supporting organisations in Australia to accelerate their digital transformation is a key priority for us at Dell Technologies and this project bears testimony to our commitment. We worked closely with Kirra Services to mitigate challenges thrown at various stages due to COVID-19 to ensure timely delivery. We are very proud of our Indigenous partners that serve the community and empower businesses.”